you against, and warn you supremely: the
critical habit of mind which somehow or other a college education does
seem to produce. This is especially true of the great universities of
our East. Nobody admires those splendid institutions more than I
do--the Nation is proud of them, and ought to be. The world of
learning admires them, and with reason. Neither the English, Scotch,
nor German universities surpass them.

But has not every one of us many times heard their graduates declare
that a mischief had been done them while in those universities by the
cultivation of a sneering attitude toward everybody--especially toward
every other young man--whom they see doing anything actual, positive,
or constructive. One of the best of these men--a man with a superb
mind highly trained--said to me on this very subject:

"I confess that I came out of college with my initiative atrophied. I
was afraid to do anything. I was afraid I would make a mistake if I
did anything; afraid I was not well enough equipped to do the things
that suggested themselves; afraid that if I did try to do anything
everybody would criticize what I did; afraid that my old college mates
would laugh at me.

"And I confess in humility that I myself acquired the habit of
intellectual suspicion toward everybody who does try to do any real
thing. I find myself unconsciously sneering at young men who are
accomplishing things. Yes, and that is not the worst of it; I find
myself sneering at myself." That is pathos--a soul doubting, denying
itself. Pathos! yes, it is tragedy!

Confirm this confession by dropping into a club where such men gather
and hearing the talk about the ones who are doing things in the world.
You will find that until the men who _are_ doing things have actually
_done_ them, done them well, and forced hostility itself to accept
what they have done as good, honest pieces of work, the talk in these
clubs will be that of harsh criticism, sneering contempt, and prophecy
of failure. Guard against that habit night and day. You would better
become an opium-eater than to permit this paralysis of mind and soul.

Believe in things. _Believe in other young men._ When you see other
young men trying to do things in business, politics, art, the
professions, believe in the honesty of their purpose and their ability
to do well what they have started out to do. Assume that they will
succeed until they prove that they cannot. Do not discourage them. Do
not sn